Stop teaching handwriting in school, do not

A few weeks ago I fell on an article written by a professor proposing that we stop teaching handwriting in school. I will not link to it, but if you Google it you are sure to find it. Her son was having trouble writing certain letters at school and she found, after a brief overview of the history of writing, that the time had come to move on to electronic writing methods and she ended with a fling at writing as so much pushing of a graphite stick in various directions. When I finished reading this, if I had had immediate access to the comments section, I would certainly have written that this was the stupidest idea I had ever heard in my entire life. I might have added something like, is your son also having trouble with art at school? Perhaps we should stop teaching art as well, we have computer graphics programs now, and after all it is just so much pushing around a paintbrush in various directions.

I was quite shocked at my reaction, at the strong emotions I felt, and of course I realised that that was partly the author’s intention: to be provocative. I then decided it did not merit serious thought or a serious reply and moved on.

Since then I have noticed that my post The importance of good handwriting is quite popular and I am constantly reminded of the contrary article. I have found myself mulling it over. Then I began to think (cue heavenly light) that perhaps it fell to me to reply to the article (cue singing angels), that my entire life up to now had brought me to this moment (cue dark clouds of doubt parting), that my blog was the perfect vehicle (cue sun), and that my blog post on this subject might be read by some young impressionable mind and it would encourage him to persevere in his handwriting technique and he would go on to become a second Shakespeare who would influence an entire generation…  (OK, cut the heavenly light, angels: take 15). 

I am not a professor, nor a writer; I am just a guy with a blog but I will tell you what I think off the top of my head and you will be the judge.

I find it sad and surely irresponsible that an educator should hold such a mistaken view (and encourage others to hold it) but I suppose it is a sign of the times. There will always be people impatient for change and impatient of the old ways. I know because I have acted in that way in my time also, unfortunately. It is the lot of impatient youth.

But it seems to me that learning how to write is the basic building block of education. And no matter how easy to use and ubiquitous the electronic tablet becomes, pen and paper will always be necessary and indeed an art form. Necessary because pen and paper are (almost) always to be had - computers, tablets, electricity and batteries are not. Use those other electronic forms by all means, but handwriting has to be there to fall back on. I am not going to belabour the point, it seems so obvious to me. I am sure you can think of a hundred situations where a written message is the best or the only way.

It also seems to me reprehensible that an educator should undermine children’s resolve to learn how to write by hand and also parents’ efforts to help and encourage them. Perhaps it is more difficult for some children than others, but if we were to choose what should be taught in school on that basis where would we be? There is something to be said for the process of overcoming difficulties and personal inclination and mastering a useful skill by perseverance.

Civilization has come the long road through many a dark brutal age to the point where literacy is possible for everyone today and the suggestion to abandon the written word in school after so many have struggled and fought to bring literacy to the world would be to do them and our children a great disservice.

But my real argument has more to do with this ‘fling it down the gutter’ attitude to all the old ways of doing things. I must sound very much like the baby boomer I am as I write this, but I do assure you in my time the shoe was on the other foot as you can read in my last post about handwriting. I have evolved, my attitude has changed, for the better I hope. The computer and the advance of technology is not the secret of happiness. People are less happy today than they were 50 years ago. All the twitters and e-mails you may send your friends may be fun, but I doubt they give as much pleasure as our ancestors (parents, grand parents!) enjoyed when they received a single thoughtful (handwritten) letter.

I am not against technology or progress. I have a blog don’t I? I am simply saying that not every technological advance is necessarily an advance for human happiness. Technology has to be used wisely, usefully, reasonably. And respect for the old ways is a virtue. A well-written, thoughtful letter is an art form in itself. Where there is no art in daily life, there is no life. No life worth the living.

I am reminded of something I read about the art of the Japanese Zen garden. The author was talking about how one might apply to a (Japanese) Zen garden master to become his pupil. He gave the master’s postal address. He advised that it might take some weeks or even months to receive an answer. Zen garden masters did not have faxes, still less computers.

I am sure they are quite, quite happy without them.

Read more about the lost art of letter writing at Proverbs 31 maiden.

Image: ‘Winter’s Child’ by Lucia

Sacrifice - from the phlegmatic Michael Caine

I have often been called phlegmatic, calm, not easily angered. (I have been called a lot of other things too…)

Phlegmatic (definition from Dictionary.com)

Adj.

1. not easily excited to action or display of emotion; apathetic; sluggish.

2. self-possessed, calm, or composed.

3. of the nature of or abounding in the humour phlegm.

Synonyms

1. stoical, cool, cold, uninterested, dull, torpid. 2.  cool, collected, unruffled, placid, quiet.

When they call me phlegmatic they usually also refer to my British background, a disposition for phlegm being seen as a typically British trait. I may have some claim to that quality (some would say particularly the cold, dull and torpid part) but I have nothing in comparison to the phlegm of one of my favourite actors: Sir Michael Caine.

I recently saw him in ‘The Weather Man’ (2005) starring Nicolas Cage. It’s a very honest movie, worth your while, even important, particularly for a few lines that Caine delivers with an armour-piercing phlegm.

To get anything of value you have to sacrifice. Do you know the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy. Easy doesn’t enter into grown up life.

Easy doesn’t enter into grown up life. It’s as simple as that. Most of our problems arise from that one simple fact and our inability to face up to doing the hard thing, the right thing, the thing that takes courage. The minute we stop resisting and accept that, we will start to make progress. And that’s also when we will start to become men. And women.

Here’s the clip, I found it on Youtube. Your whole life has brought you to this moment with Michael Caine.

I Ching - nourishing the superior

I have never, and I mean never, consulted the I Ching without it being spot on in its commentary on my problem and supplying me with extraordinarily simple but meaningful insight. So I consulted the I Ching again this week concerning certain persistent demons I wished to expunge.

Yes, I have demons. Do you think I apply effortlessly all the principles of philosophy I talk about here? Certainly not. Some of them I apply to some degree, for some length of time, with some success. Some things I have improved enormously; other things are stubbornly hard to overcome. But at least I am thinking about them. Sometimes.

So it came about this week that I asked the I Ching to shed some light on a difficult problem and as an answer it gave me hexagram 27. I / The Corners of the Mouth (Providing nourishment) changing with time into hexagram 5. Hsu / Waiting (Nourishment). That’s quite a lot of nourishment going on, you say. Or not. Or should be, as the case may be. Yes, it is.

Again, the I Ching absolutely hit the nail on the head without trying. From the Wilhelm/Baynes edition:

.

THE JUDGEMENT

THE CORNERS OF THE MOUTH.
Perseverence brings good fortune.
Pay heed to the providing of nourishment
And to what a man seeks
To fill his own mouth with.

In bestowing care and nourishment, it is important that the right people should be taken care of and that we should attend to our own nourishment in the right way…. Mencius says about this:

If we wish to know whether anyone is superior or not, we need only observe what part of his being he regards as especially important. The body has superior and inferior, important and unimportant parts. We must not injure important parts for the sake of the unimportant, nor must we injure the superior parts for the sake of the inferior. He who cultivates the inferior parts of his nature is an inferior man. He who cultivates the superior parts of his nature is a superior man.

Here of course it is not merely about nourishing the body, though it means that as well, but about nourishing the mind and the soul. As we care about what we put into our mouths and into our bodies, so we must care about what we allow to enter our minds and our souls, because what enters there will decide whether we function well and grow and thrive or not. If we are not careful what we let in, perhaps we may even get sick.
I went on to look at hexagram 5. Waiting:

All beings have need of nourishment from above. But the gift of food comes in its own time, and for this one must wait…. Waiting is not mere empty hoping. It has the inner certainty of reaching the goal. Such certainty alone gives that light which leads to success….

THE IMAGE

Clouds rise up to heaven:
The image of WAITING.
Thus the superior man eats and drinks,
Is joyous and of good cheer.

When clouds rise in the sky, it is a sign that it will rain. There is nothing to do but wait until the rain falls. It is the same in life when destiny is at work. We should not worry and seek to shape the future by interfering in things before the time is ripe. We should quietly fortify the body with food and drink and the mind with gladness and good cheer. Fate comes when it will, and thus we are ready.

Here the message of the previous hexagram is reinforced: carefully nourish the body and the mind, the important and the superior parts. This is the way to cooperate fully and efficiently with the forces at work and takes away the worry and the stress and the striving. Let the Tao take the strain.
I personally also read into these lines the message ‘stop trying to get something you haven’t paid for yet’ or ‘stop trying to jump the line for the things you desire’. In other words, wait for them, prepare for them coming, be ready, and when they come they will be yours.

So, based on the timeless wisdom of the I Ching, I made a resolution about my problem. The thing with resolutions is if you make too many that you don’t keep, they lose their power. So this one I wrote down in the form of a covenant. This resolution is too important not to keep. Now I will view everything I do through the lens of ‘is this cultivating the important and superior parts of my nature, or the opposite?’

I hope you found this helpful. I encourage you to discover the power of the I Ching for yourself. It will be one of the most important steps you will ever take.

Photo by lapie

Sit on top of the world

Touch my skin and tell me what you’re thinking,
take my hand and show me where we’re going.
Lie down next to me, look into my eyes
and tell me, oh tell me what you’re seeing.
So sit on top of the world and tell me how you’re feeling,
what you feel is what I feel for you.
Take my hand and if I’m lying to you,
I’ll always be alone if I’m lying to you.

These words are the lyrics of a song that for me most completely embodies the feeling of a person in love (who is uncertain of the feelings of the beloved). They come from the song ‘Take my hand’ from Dido’s album ‘No Angel’. I will not try to comment on the beautiful musical score or the flawless voice and execution of Dido. But the words… listen to the words.
Here you have the attention, the complete attention of the person in love. The need for information, the need to know the heart of the beloved. Here you have sincerity and the grace and poetry born of sincerity. Sit on top of the world, she says – that’s how I feel about you. If only she could make you understand how she feels. She is not exaggerating - here you have the solemn invocation and vow of truth – she’ll always be alone if she’s lying to you. Later she adds ‘Take your time’. Love is patient. Take your time. Have you ever said that to someone?

From what we have seen about love thus far, we know this person is ‘in deep’. She has a beautiful love, in her head. Perhaps it will be alright. Sometimes love is reciprocated and the magic happens. We hope it works. We believe in the singer’s hope and earnestness. Sometimes we need to believe.
(If it doesn’t work, we hope a friend tells her about Anthony de Mello, and Healing Philosophy).

The Sword of Sincerity

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. What is the worth of all this? The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fate may play, we march always in the ranks of honour. Winston Churchill

The shield of rectitude and sincerity: what a fine image! I am reminded of some other fine images of a martial nature:

Remember that it is in perfect gentleness that your soul will find the strongest defence, the only armour without a flaw. Remember the words of the Master: ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ J.-M. Sylvain, Entretiens spirituels, P. 117

(The Taoist ideal of non-combat or non-competitiveness) disposes always of an invincible weapon: love, and a shield against which break the most furious assaults of men and destiny: sacrifice. Le Livre du Tao et de sa Vertu

We have seen that many other virtues can be considered a shield. Humility is a shield: the only sure protection against humiliation. Patience is a shield: the greatest fortitude against the evils of hatred and anger. I am sure you can think of others.
But if I may, I will disagree with my most esteemed compatriot Winston Churchill (and I think he would forgive me) by saying that I believe sincerity more closely resembles a sword than a shield. For with sincerity we can not merely defend ourselves: we can attack, we can pierce through men’s defences and win them to our cause. With sincerity as our sword and rectitude as our shield, we conquer men and destiny. Who could stand against us? Now, isn’t that a fine image?

Sincerity, a deep, great, genuine sincerity, is the first characteristic of all men in any way heroic. Thomas Carlyle

The true measure of life is not length, but honesty. John Lily

Weak persons cannot be sincere. François Duc de la Rochefoucauld

Sincerity may be humble, but she cannot be servile. Thomas Carlyle

He who is sincere hath the easiest task in the world, for, truth being always consistent with itself, he is put to no trouble about his words and actions; it is like traveling in a plain road, which is sure to bring you to your journey's end better than byways in which many lose themselves. John Tillotson

Sincerity is the face of the soul, as dissimulation is the mask. Joseph Sanial-Dubay

Sincerity is not only effective and honourable, it is also much less difficult than is commonly supposed. George H. Lewes

Never apologize for showing feeling. My friend, remember that when you do so you apologize for truth. Benjamin Disraeli

Sincerity is an openness of heart; it is found in a very few people, and that which we see commonly is not it, but a subtle dissimulation, to gain the confidence of others. François Duc de la Rochefoucauld

The happy talent of pleasing either those above or below you seems to be wholly owing to the opinion they have of your sincerity… There need be no more said in honour of it than that it is what forces the approbation of your opponents. Sir Richard Steele

You can play a shoestring if you're sincere. John Coltrane

It is best to be yourself, imperial, plain and true. Robert Browning

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Photo from Wikimedia: King Leonidas of Sparta

The Observer - I am not my anger

Following my last post The Observer Within, I wondered where I had come across the concept of the observer. I did a Google search and quickly found this talk entitled The Observer by Sri Vasudeva. Here is an excerpt that is very à propos:

In all our activities, if we look carefully, we will see that there is an observer involved. Sometimes we are so identified with the activity that we are not able to experience this observer self as distinct from the activity. In other words, we become the activity. For example, instead of seeing that there is the emotion of anger within us and being able to observe it objectively we become carried away in the feeling ‘I am angry’. If we are really observing we will experience the observer as being separate from the anger and will be able to say ‘There is anger within me’ rather than ‘I am angry’. Do you see the difference? This is extremely important to understand when seeking to experience the full or pure state of the observer. So there is a part of us that can observe the process of thinking, feeling and physical sensation whilst feeling the sense of separateness. Focusing on this observer can lead us to the Source of our being.

Vasudeva goes on to expound the great virtues of meditation in developing our awareness of the observer, since in meditation we practice observing many things – our body, our breath, our thoughts – without attaching to them. The practice of meditation then is an ideal way to get in touch with our centre, our inner, higher self: our observer.

Give attention to the observer within and seek to centre yourself in the seat of the pure observer. It is the seat of the ‘I am’ consciousness. It is the seat of your freedom and joy in the human experience. It is the seat of connectedness with your Source. Seek to live and act from this space.

Sri Vaseduva’s advice to train ourselves to see anger from an observer’s point of view rather than ‘becoming’ the anger reminds me of a Taoist practice expounded by Stephen Russell in his ‘Barefoot Doctor’s Guide to the Tao’ called ‘The Nobody Contemplation’.
Russell asks us to make a list of our possessions and say ‘I am not these possessions. I am not this house. I am not this telephone. I am not this rubber biscuit.’ Then do the same for our hopes and desires: ‘I am not that different house. I am not that personal satellite phone with built-in modem, fax and organizer…’ On to the people in our lives - ‘I am not my mother, I am not my son…’ - to our habits, addictions, aversions and phobias and finally to our body with all its aches and pains: ‘I am not my body’.

Feel it. You’re not your possessions, your desires, your people, your habits, your fears: you’re not even your body. You’re simply nobody. Revel in the freedom of it, then move out onto the street, a busy, grimy street preferably, and be nobody, absolutely no one at all. Being no one at all, you’ve nothing to lose, you’re just atoms moving in the everything, child of the Tao, and everything is yours.

Gratitude - the most complete prayer

Many if not all virtues are interrelated, the lines between them blurred. Aristotle believed that no virtue was found in isolation. I remember using the following quote in my post Humility - accepting suffering with joy:

The truly patient man does not examine who is testing him, whether it is his superior, his equal or his inferior, a good man or a bad man. But, treating all indiscriminately, he receives from God’s hand, gratefully, and as often as He likes, everything contrary that happens to him, and considers it a great benefit.
(‘Imitation de N.S. Jésus Christ’)

My point was that the humble man does not rebel against what is happening to him, as if it should not be happening to him because he is superior. He accepts it willingly. In the Tao Te Ching we read that the man who follows the Tao accepts, like water, the lowly places that no one else wants.
I later used the same quote in my post Patience – the greatest prayer. My point was then that the humble man is necessarily patient: not putting his own interests forward, not feeling unjustly dealt with, but accepting whatever comes his way with faith and philosophy.
And now I have quoted it again in this post on gratitude. For as you have read, our truly patient, humble man receives gratefully everything contrary that happens to him and counts it a great blessing. Humility, patience, gratitude. Who can say where one leaves off and the other begins?

A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves. Henry Ward Beecher

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation. Brian Tracy

There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

The difficulties, hardships and trials of life, the obstacles… are positive blessings. They knit the muscles more firmly, and teach self-reliance. William Mathews

I remember how we saw that humility is the root of all good, the foundation of all virtues. If humility is the root, patience is the tree and gratitude the branches. We saw also in Humility - accepting suffering with joy how the Rabbi, in his gratitude for all that God gave him, could not understand why he should know something of suffering.

Remember that not to be happy is not to be grateful. Elizabeth Carter

In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy. Albert Clarke

Whenever we are appreciative, we are filled with a sense of well-being and swept up by the feeling of joy. M.J. Ryan

There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy. Ralph H. Blum

There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance. Joseph Addison

Gratitude is our most direct line to God and the angels. If we take the time, no matter how crazy and troubled we feel, we can find something to be thankful for. The more we seek gratitude, the more reason the angels will give us for gratitude and joy to exist in our lives. Terry Lynn Taylor

To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven. Johannes A. Gaertner

A simple grateful thought toward Heaven is the most complete prayer. Gotthold Lessing

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was thank you that would suffice. Meister Eckhart

Gratitude is heaven itself. William Blake

The Overachiever's Prayer

The following prayer (given in part) comes from Carol Osborne’s book ‘How would Confucius ask for a raise?’ It contains the essence of a Taoist approach to success or more particularly, the correct attitude to adopt when faced with the frustration and disappointment that arises when, despite our overly-anxious, pushing, striving best efforts, we fail.
Read it and feel your boiling temperature immediately descend to a simmer. Rinse and repeat. I used this prayer often and it helped me a lot. In fact Carol’s book, a gift from a colleague, is one of the most useful books I know to help you understand the principles of Taoism and how you can apply them to your career and daily life.

The Overachievers Anonymous Prayer

Help me to give up pushing, demanding, and desiring specific rewards from my work.
I trust that however confused and convoluted it feels at the time, I am always being led to my greater purpose the fastest, most direct way possible.
If it seems long and difficult at times, it is because I am a beginner and there is so much more to learn…
When I am disappointed along the way, without anger, self-hatred, or judgment, I simply make whatever corrections I can. If I can’t find anything to correct, or if I have reached the point where to give more will sacrifice my overall vitality and well-being, I have the patience to wait.
I ask you to help me love myself, wherever I am in the process, trusting that given who I am, where I’ve come from, and the circumstances I face, I am always doing my best…

Notice that here again (my italics) we find the proviso of not letting competing priorities get in the way of health. Health comes first, before success, before career, before everything. We must remember there is no fortitude like patience.

Patience - for everything there is a season

For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

There are some terrible things among this list which there is unfortunately a time for, (killing, hating and war, for example). This is hard to understand. Perhaps the author is speaking of the inevitable, unfortunate cycles in the life of man in his ignorance, rather than espousing any wise ideal. Even so, some things are not mentioned that could have been. With this in mind, here is my list of what there is no time for:

There is no time for hate (here I had to disagree!), but always a time for forgiveness;
No time for anger, always a time for patience;
No time for pride, always a time for humility;
No time to despise, always a time to understand;
No time to throw stones, always a time to correct one’s own faults;
No time to ignore, always a time to listen;
No time to take, always a time to give;
No time to expect, always a time to be grateful;
No time to divide, always a time to unite;
No time to conquer, always a time to lead;
No time to cause fear, always a time to smile;
No time to worry, always a time to act;
No time to despair, always a time to hope;
No time to be afraid, always a time to help oneself.

Patience quotations

The greatest prayer is patience. Buddha

There is no evil like hatred, and no fortitude like patience. Shantideva

Humility is attentive patience. Simone Weil

The principal part of faith is patience. George MacDonald

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all. Friedrich Von Logau

Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience. George-Louis de Buffon

Genius is eternal patience. Michelangelo

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. Albert Einstein

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. Phaedrus

Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily. Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

Patience is the companion of wisdom. Saint Augustine

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace. Mary Sarton

Patience is also a form of action. Auguste Rodin

Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength. Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Patience and Gentleness is Power. Leigh Hunt

With love and patience, nothing is impossible. Daisaku Ikeda

Patience can conquer destiny. Irish proverb

He that can have patience can have what he will. Benjamin Franklin

Everything comes gradually and at its appointed hour. Ovid

With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown. Chinese proverb

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Patience and passage of time do more than strength and fury. Jean de la Fontaine

Patience comes to those who wait. Terry Ballard

How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? William Shakespeare.

If you add a little to a little, and then do it again, soon that little shall be much. Hesiod

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew. Saint Francis de Sales

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind. Leonardo Da Vinci

One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life. Chinese Proverb

Who is the great man? He who is strongest in patience. He who patiently endures injury, and maintains a blameless life––he is a man indeed! H.P.Blavatsky

Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health. Michel de Montaigne

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures. Joseph Addison

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake. Victor Hugo

Have patience and endure; this unhappiness will one day be beneficial. Ovid

Patience - lifting the cover

As we have seen in my previous post, we can easily become victims of our desires. Making our happiness conditional on the continual success of satisfying our desires or on the possession of outer, material things is a sure way to disappointment.

If you seek this or that, if you wish to be here or there, without any other object but to satisfy yourself, and to live more in accordance with your liking, you will never have rest, and you will never be free from worry, because in everything you will find something that injures you, and everywhere someone who impedes you.
(My translation from Imitation de N.-S. J.-C. Livre III, Ch. XXVII.)

Yet this is the way we mostly live. This is the ‘default mode of living’ unless we make a conscious effort to uplift our thoughts to higher planes. There is nothing wrong with wanting a better life and working towards it. Where we go wrong is neglecting inner goals in favour of fleeting, chimerical outer goals, whereas the only real happiness comes from within. This outer world is only a means to an end.

The visible world is like a cover thrown over the invisible world, not only to keep out the wet and dirt, but also to stop it being seen. Otherwise the game of hide-and-seek would be over too soon, and we’d have to find something else to do with eternity…
The visible outer world of form and appearance, the arena and stage upon which we collectively play out the human drama, is a metaphor for the invisible, inner realm… The purpose of ceremonial magic, including that practiced by official religions and other occult organizations, is to remind us to access the door to the invisible realm within…
(The Barefoot Doctor’s Guide to the Tao, Stephen Russel)

What has this to do with patience? Everything, in that it gives us a deeper perspective. We can see disappointments (or anything else for that matter) at one remove as it were. We can ‘lift up the corner of the cover’ and try to see the invisible meaning hiding under the visible disappointment. And that helps us to deal with the situation and not become a prey to impatience, or even, God forbid, anger. This is, in fact, the only right way to live.

Patience - non-desire

In today’s society, it is considered quite normal to work hard, to be ambitious, to be continually pushing towards our goals and dreams. As we discussed in my post Decrease, we are ‘hard-wired’ to expect that life will always improve, or at least our life. And in this context, we can easily slip into impatience when improvement is not forthcoming. Not to mention, God forbid, when we meet obstacles, setbacks, decrease or failure. How can we be patient in our modern way of life?
In the Tao Te Ching, we find an invaluable ally: non-desire.

We are victims of our desires; every concession to their demands, each satisfaction obtained is a defeat since, in the world of the senses, the objects of our desires are mere apparitions. This race toward illusions takes us far, always farther from the Tao. That is why ‘There is no greater error than to wish to satisfy one’s desires; there is no greater misery than not knowing how to be sufficient in oneself. There is no greater calamity than the desire to possess.’ (46)

Instead of pushing, striving, and desiring all the time, what would happen if we took our foot off the gas? What if we let go for a while? What if we were ‘attentively patient’?

The misfortune is that we encumber our lives with calculations, with expectations, where past and future, hopes and dreams, apprehensions and regrets, are mixed together in a perpetual confusion. By subordinating all our actions to the requirements of our personal desire, these parasites of the soul prevent us from having a simplistic vision of existence, because they leave no room for the unknown, i.e. for the Spirit.

(My translations from the Dervy edition of the ‘Tao Te King’).

Discover the Taoist principle of non-desire. Allow the Spirit to work its magic in your life a little. It is better at it than you.

Patience - the greatest prayer

The greatest prayer is patience, said the Buddha. Not surprising since, as we have seen in my posts on anger, Shantideva tells us some striking things with regard to patience and the lack thereof:

Whatever wholesome deeds,
Such as venerating the Buddhas and (practicing) generosity,
That have been amassed over a thousand eons,
Will all be destroyed in one moment of anger.

And:

There is no evil like hatred,
And no fortitude like patience.
Thus I should strive in various ways
To meditate on patience.

Therefore, to pray for patience if we have none, or fear we may run out, is the greatest prayer we can offer.
Just as I was taken aback to realise the all-importance of humility in philosophy, I was equally amazed to discover the abhorrence of anger and the ‘essentiality’ of patience. As we shall see, patience is a cure or at least a fortitude for many ills and sorrows, a protection against wrongs, the companion of wisdom, and the secret of genius. I knew patience was ‘a good thing’, a very fine virtue. But it occurs to me that patience is practically the entire goal of philosophy. I would have said humility also, but there is such a connection between humility and patience as to blur the edges between them. A humble person is necessarily patient because he does not put his interests before those of others. I found this confirmed in a quote from Simone Weil:

Humility is attentive patience.

And in my posts on humility I used the following quotation from the Dervy edition of the Tao Te Ching (page 156), which I do not scruple to give again here:

The truly patient man does not examine who is testing him, whether it is his superior, his equal or his inferior, a good man or a bad man. But, treating all indiscriminately, he receives from God’s hand, gratefully, and as often as He likes, everything contrary that happens to him, and considers it a great benefit.

The truly patient man is, I think, a man who has faith. Faith that everything is grist for the mill. Faith that God, the Tao, the universe will ‘see him right’ in the long run if he tries earnestly to do the right thing. Faith in himself and his ability to lift himself up and come through. The truly patient man has philosophy! What do you think?
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Photo by Rodolfo Clix

Anger (4) - no fortitude like patience

One moment of anger destroys a thousand eons of wholesome deeds, says Shantideva. At that rate, I at least have probably destroyed more eons of wholesome deeds than you can shake a stick at. On the other hand, I probably don’t have above an eon or two of good deeds to destroy. Humour aside, what are we going to do about it? For it is one thing to be angry through ignorance. It is another to continue to indulge in anger after one has been fortunate enough to come across the Buddhist teachings, among other philosophies, and so to finally realise one’s (awful) mistake. Shantideva does not leave us up in the air as to the answer. The second verse reads:

There is no evil like hatred,
And no fortitude like patience.
Thus I should strive in various ways
To meditate on patience. (2)

Patience then is the virtue we need to disarm anger. (After humility, that primordial virtue. But humility presupposes patience, since humility does not put itself forward). We need patience in the face of all the kinds of suffering we meet in this life. If you are prone to anger or impatience (and even if you are not), I highly recommend you study Healing Anger, by the Dalai Lama. In it he discusses the many verses of Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life that dissect the nature and causes of anger. We are shown how we can skilfully cultivate patience and tolerance so that we can transcend the bad situations we encounter.
For example, when someone causes us harm, we may get angry because we feel they did it ‘on purpose’ or because ‘they are like that’. But this is a mistake:

Even if it were the nature of the childish
To cause harm to other beings,
It would still be incorrect to be angry with them,
For this would be like begrudging fire for having the nature to burn. (39)

Will getting angry put out a fire? On the other hand, even if we know the person is not to blame or has made a mistake, we may still get angry. What then?

And even if the fault were temporary
In those who are by nature reliable,
It would still be incorrect to be angry,
For this would be like begrudging space for allowing smoke to rise in it. (40)

By meditating on these insights, we become more skilful and aware in handling situations that annoy and anger us. And this enables us to react with compassion instead of anger. It also enables us to ‘keep our treasure’.